Mexican elections: Who wants to run for public office?

Few days after having accepted to run for mayor of Valle Hermoso, a small town in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, José María Guajardo Varela was killed along with his son and his driver.

According to press reports, the National Action Party (PAN) candidate was murdered this morning when he arrived to his agricultural business.

Few hours after the killings, the PAN President, Cesar Nava, said that Guajardo had received several death threats before. He attributed those threats to organized crime.

The killing today made evident that organized crime is determined to control not jut the drug trafficking business, but also to have a stronger influence in politics. In fact, before Guajardo’s assassination, the PAN had announced that due to the fact that several of its candidates have received death threats, they wouldn’t campaign openly in some important municipalities of Tamaulipas such as Camargo, Ciudad Mier and Nueva Ciudad Guerrero.

Julian Sacramento, the PAN candidate for governor in Tamaulipas said recently that they were having problems to register candidates because those who could run for public offices, were afraid of the “narcos”.

“For the possible candidates it is a very difficult situation and we don’t want to put them at risk. All this area is out of control… the state is out of control and there are many towns without law”, said Sacramento.

The leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) reported a similar situation. The party decided not to nominate candidates in at least 10 municipalities of Tamaulipas “where organized crime has taken control of the political participation”, said Hortensia Aragon, general secretary of the PRD.

This is the first time in Mexico’s recent history that organized crime is having a direct and visible impact in the electoral process. 

Fourteen states will have elections in July 4, among them Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas. In those states, the drug trafficking violence is already an “issue” for all of the candidates, but we haven’t seen yet how it will affect their political campaigns. But the unfortunate killing of Mr. Guajardo is probably the first sign of how things have started to change for political candidates.

Comments

[Adriana]

Do I smell anarchism in towns plagued with drug cartel violence?